


birds of a feather

by mintmagic



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Dorks in Love, Hospitalization, M/M, background benarmie, pigeon facts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 10:53:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13634826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mintmagic/pseuds/mintmagic
Summary: Techie has never met anyone like Matt before, but he's never met anyone like himself, either.





	birds of a feather

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ZaeraDee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZaeraDee/gifts).



              It begins with a piece of library scrap paper bearing a phone number, a lopsided smiley face, and the words, “You’re cute.”

              Techie decides in a heartbeat that the curly-haired stranger with glasses slipping down his nose is worth a gamble.  Few people would call him cute on a good day, much less today, where his hair is badly in need of dry shampoo and pulled into a messy bun, and where his eyes are red and itchy from allergies.  He’s not even dressed nicely.  He’s wearing Harry Potter sweatpants that he slept in last night, for crying out loud.  And somehow—maybe because of a hallucinogenic vapor put out by old books, or because he’s actually an alien who doesn’t know what a handsome human looks like—this stranger a few tables away from him in the computer lounge thinks that he’s _cute._

              “Tell me your name,” he sends to the stranger’s number.

              A few seconds later, his phone buzzes with the reply.  “Matt.”

              Techie chews on a lock of hair while he contemplates his next move.  “William.  But call me Techie.  Everyone does.”

\--

              As it turns out, Matt can handle a lot of weird, and Techie is increasingly convinced that he might be an alien.

              Fidget cubes?  Matt latches onto it and gleefully plays with the control stick through an entire coffee date.  Techie sends it home with him.

              Seeing Techie put everything from his hair to his headphone cords to pen caps in his mouth?  Matt says it “reminds him of a hamster, but, like, in a cute way.”

              When Techie refuses to snuggle him at the movies because he’s wearing an itchy sweater, Matt takes it off and sits there shivering in a black tank top for the sake of having Techie’s head lay on his shoulder.

              He never demands that Techie look at him.

              Because Techie _is_ looking.

              He’s looking at Matt’s fingernails as they slowly recover from being bitten.

              He’s looking at callused hands and the nerdy prints of Matt’s t-shirts and the fine little hairs on his ridiculously strong arms, too scared to lift his eyes to Matt’s face.

              Eye contact is hard, yeah, but Techie knows that if he looks, he won’t be able to stop staring at Matt’s lips.  The first night Matt kissed him on the cheek after driving him home, Techie was so filled with electric energy that he couldn’t even knit properly, dropping stitches left and right, and it was five in the morning before Armitage wandered out of his room in their shared apartment to make his morning coffee and found him still awake.  Even now, the occasional brush of Matt’s lips on his cheek, or his hand, or the top of his head—it makes his heart feel like a bird desperately trying to take flight, a clumsy pigeon bashing against his ribs.

              When he tries to tell Matt, he blurts out, “There’s a pigeon in my chest, and you woke it up.”

              Matt just lays a broad palm against his sternum and says, “Did you know that city pigeons are basically feral pets, not wild?  If you scooped one up and took it home and cared for it, in a couple of days, it would love you as much as a pigeon could love.”

\--

              The first time Techie wobbles into Matt’s arms in a backless gown and non-slip hospital socks, he says, “You didn’t have to visit me.  I’m being discharged tomorrow.”

              He feels a little ridiculous, being in the hospital again for something as simple as blacking out, and he feels even worse for scaring Armitage’s boyfriend.  It’s really not Ben’s fault he called an ambulance.  Unconscious people are alarming to find in your boyfriend’s apartment.  Even if the unconscious person is your boyfriend’s weird brother.  It’s just that if Armitage had been there, he would’ve just moved Techie to the couch and given him some ginger ale and crackers.

              Then again, the hospital IV is working a lot better than ginger ale.

              Matt just cups his cheek and kisses him softly, then presses a gift bag into his hands.  “Ben sounded pretty freaked out,” he says.  “I mean—I was too, until your brother said this just happens sometimes.  I would hate to be in a place like this overnight, so I brought you something.”

              Inside the bag is a floppy plush doll, a little gray pigeon with mottled wings and a dark head.

              That night, Techie curls up with the doll and strokes its wings, rubbing the soft undersides and smoothing the minky fabric.  He notices a strip of paper, like a fortune cookie slip, wrapped around the doll’s leg, and when he pries it open, he sees Matt’s familiar, blocky writing.

“You make my heart do the pigeon thing, too.”

\--

              “You got me a ring,” Matt breathes, rubbing his thumb over the engraved Roman numerals.  “You seriously got me a ring?”

              “Hey, slow down, it was twelve bucks,” Techie says with a laugh.  He stands up on tiptoe in his battered old yellow Converse to kiss Matt on his ridiculously soft mouth.  “This is more like going steady, okay?”

              “Going steady?  Can I take you to the malt shop and split a shake with you?”

              Both of them break down into giggles, prodding at each other while trying to snuggle closer.

              “Are you one of those people who dips their fries in their milkshake?  Because Ben does that, and Armie looks at him like he was raised in a barn.”

              Matt wrinkles his nose.  “People do that?”

              Techie just smiles and gives Matt another nudge.  “Put the ring on, goofball.”

              He tries it on, and to his delight, it spins.  His whole face lights up, and Techie is oddly reminded of anime characters’ hair fluffing up with excitement.  Matt is like that, always so transparent with his emotions.  There’s never any trouble reading him.

              “You liked the fidget cube so much, I thought this would be a little more subtle, you know?  Er… subtler?  Anyway.”  Techie grins and brings Matt’s hand up, kissing his knuckles.  “And you can use it for a D20 in your tabletop stuff, too!”

\--

              When Matt says “I love you” for the first time, he says it like any other fact—blunt and indisputable.

              Techie, for once, isn’t scared.  The words don’t make his blood turn to frosty panic.  The frantic beating in his chest feels jubilant, and he throws his arms around Matt’s neck and tells him, “I love you, too.”


End file.
